Hotel management falls within the hospitality industry: a bustling place filled with hotels, restaurants, bars and the like, all wanting to rise to the top.

The competition against your hotel might be severe, but that does not mean you can’t rise to the occasion.

So here are the four best ways you can beat the odds and take your hotel to the top:

Learn, and continue to learn:

Although a degree and classes on management skill are good enough, you need to attain a learning experience outside the classroom as well.

You as a hotel manager should be a logical thinker. You must be analytical when it comes to managing your business, making sure that you know what your data means, and that it can turn into a strategy. You should have excellent communication skills, an open mind, and a friendly personality.

Furthermore, continue to learn from your surroundings. Hotel management is a jack-of-all-trades kind of deal, therefore you need to understand everyone’s job – from housekeeping to even bartending. Once you understand everyone’s job and how they contribute to your business’s success, only then can you strategize ways to excel in the industry.

Build a strong team:

In the hospitality game, you are as good as your team, therefore hire a team you are proud of. Hire dedicated, honest and loyal people who do not take advantage of your services. Keep them disciplined, but don’t keep them tied to a leash. As a hotel manager, you will need a team that supports you – so support them by giving them authority where it is due.

Your team is the face of your hotel – so investing time and energy in gaining their trust in an ethical way will give your hotel a positive outlook.

Value your customers:

Here, the clichéd term applies: the customer is always right. The hospitality industry is built on the customers’ wants and needs, therefore you need to make sure you offer it. This can be as simple as being open to their suggestions, or simply greeting customers upon their arrival with a smile.Investing in customer relationship management (CRM) software helps a lot. With loyalty Programs like the one integrated in Oscar POS, you can reward customers for choosing your hotel in terms of points – racking these up helps increase their loyalty. Once your customers feel valued, they will automatically suggest your premises to their friends and families – ultimately marking you on the map.

Be organised and adaptable

In this context, organised means you should have a certain system which allows you to manage all frontiers that demand your attention – supervising staff members, scheduling shifts, handing out tasks, dealing with requests and complaints from guests, the list goes on. You should be willing enough to give long hours worth of attention to your business when the situation calls for it. Be ready for any state of emergency by keeping a levelled mind while dealing with such things. Staying calm and logical even in stressful times yields the best long-term solutions.Being adaptable means you should be able to make quick decisions in any kind of situation. For a business as volatile as the hotel industry, anything can go wrong at any moment. Therefore, anticipate issues beforehand, and always have a backup plan for everything. Breaking through the competition depends on you coming up with creative yet effective strategies. Use your data and analytics to make long-term solutions; a hotel POS software like Oscar provides all such valuable statistics easily so that you know what are your strengths and weaknesses, and what you can do to excel.

This goes without saying, but you cannot expect a business to flourish if you don’t have the motivation to do great things. Peter Verhoeven, the Chief Operating Officer of ibis Brands Europe at ACCOR Paris, has mentioned how the secret to success is realising that “it is a marathon, not a sprint. The fuel you need is passion!”

The hospitality industry demands customer satisfaction from the moment they step into your premises, till when they leave. It might be fierce in terms of competition, but it has plenty of room for growth. So nothing should stop you from taking your hotel to the next level!